Western Visayas noted a 94.7 percent employment rate in 2018, slightly higher than the 94.6 percent recorded in 2017, but with a higher underemployment rate of 18.6 percent, the Philippine Statistics Authority said yesterday.

Based on the 2018 Annual Labor and Employment Status posted yesterday at the PSA website, it said that Western Visayas has a 94.7 percent employment rate out of the 61.2 percent labor force participation rate in the region.

In 2018, Region 6 had a 5,459,000 population who are 15 years old and above, which is 105,000 higher than 2017’s 5,354,000. Of this number, 61.2 percent are part of the labor force, or 0.7 percent lower than in 2017, it added.

The employment rate of WV is the same as the national average, while Cagayan Valley was highest at 97 percent, PSA records showed.

In the Visayas, Western Visayas tied with Central Visayas after it declined from 95.5 percent in 2017, while Eastern Visayas increased 0.2 percent, or from 95.6 to 95.8 percent in 2018.

The increase in employment rate in Region 6 also allowed underemployment rate to increase by 1.9 percent, from 16.7 percent in 2017 to 18.9 percent in 2018, while the unemployment rate is now at 5.3 percent from 5.4 percent two years ago.

The PSA’s LFS for 2018 preliminary results are based on the average of the four LFS rounds in January, April, July, and October, and posted an annual labor force participation rate of 60.9 percent, out of 71.3 million population 15 years old and over.

The PSA said this is equivalent to about 43.5 million economically active population composed of either employed or unemployed persons.

Workers in the services sector comprised the largest proportion of the employed persons who make up 56.6 percent of the total employed, workers in the agriculture sector was the second largest group, making up 24.3 percent, while workers in the industry sector made up the smallest group, registering 19.1 percent of the total employed.

PSA also said that employed persons who express the desire to have additional hours of work in their present job, have additional job, or have a new job with longer working hours are considered underemployed.

In 2018, the underemployed persons were estimated at 6.7 million, corresponding to an underemployment rate of 16.4 percent.

Of the unemployed persons in 2018, 75.2 percent belonged to age group 15 to 34 years old, 44.6 percent for age group 15 to 24 years old, and 30.6 percent in the age group 25 to 34 years old, the PSA added.*